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Matt SheehanMatt holds an MSc in Geography and GIS. He has been working with clients solving problems with GIS for over 17 years. Matt founded WebMapSolutions whose mission is to put innovative, intuitive GIS driven applications into the hands of new and existing users.

With GIS be Single Minded, Determined and Driven

This is a blog post about not giving up. Forgive me for dipping back into sport (I try to avoid sports analogies), but I wanted to share a story which illustrates well the message in this post.

A friend of mine recently joined a new soccer team. A good team filled with Brazilian players. But a high pressure team, mistakes were met with loud criticism. Good play went unmentioned. My friend is a good player but had much to prove. He did not start the first 2 games, and when brought on was played in an unfamiliar position. By his description he felt the games went okay. His own performance was ‘safe’ as he described. He started the third game. A cup game. And lasted 10 minutes before being hauled off with the team down by 3 goals, none down to my friend. He felt rotten. He waited out the next 35 minutes on the sidelines, not called back into the game. A mixture of emotions and thoughts went through his head: anger, unfair, give up, doubt.

The half ended. The score 4-1. The team were in disarray, arguments broke out on the sidelines many in Portuguese. My friend sat quietly and listened. After what seemed an eternity of angry words, the referee signaled for the teams to come out for the second half. My friend waited. Just as the game was about to begin again, my friend was called onto the field. And into his familiar position. The second half was very different. A new shape and team confidence drove my friends team. The game ended 4-4. An amazing turn around. My friend was congratulated on his play.

But the game needed a winner, so next came penalties. Again my friend quietly watched. The teams selected from their midst penalty takers. Score, miss, miss. It was obvious both teams were struggling to score a winning penalty. Each team were running out of penalty takers. With only 2 players left to take a kick my friend stepped up. Slowly he walked to the penalty spot. Placed the ball, and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to score. He had just scored the games winning goal.

With GIS be Single Minded, Determined and Driven

I like this story. My friend showed single minded determination and drive in the face of unfair judgement and criticism. He kept belief in himself and did not let emotion get in his way. Has he won his team mates over? As he says that is still work in progress. More importantly he proved much to himself.

So what has this to do with GIS? We live in changing times. The technology is groaning to move away from its traditional roots. To be used and proven to be useful across all organizations: both private and public. Be brave and bold and believe in yourself. Lead the charge within your organization to think differently about the use of GIS. To adopt it maybe or move it away from simply being seen as only a mapping tool. You will notice I am not leaning towards any specific GIS solution, there are many great ones out there. Choose the best one which suites your needs, and apply the technology to solve your organizations business problems. Contact us on 801-733-0723 if you need help.